Join author and natural navigator Tristan Gooley for an evening exploring the secret life of trees, as he celebrates the release of his new book How to Read a Tree. Tristan Gooley has been instructing people in the art of natural navigation, including reading trees, for two decades. During this fascinating evening, Tristan will share the simple principles that explain the shapes and patterns you can see in trees and what they mean. We will learn rare skills that can be applied every time we pass a tree, and learn why no 2 trees are EVER identical. You’ll never look at a tree the same way again! ‘A mesmerising book … Gooley drops learning as lightly as blossom falls in spring.’ – John Lewis-Stempel ABOUT TRISTAN GOOLEY Tristan set up his natural navigation school in 2008 and is the author of the award-winning The Natural Navigator, The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs, How to Read Water, and Wild Signs and Star Paths. He has written for the Sunday Times, the New York Times, the BBC, The Financial Times and many other periodicals. Tristan has led expeditions in five continents, climbed mountains in Europe, Africa and Asia, sailed small boats across oceans and piloted small aircraft to Africa and the Arctic. He has walked with and studied the methods of the Tuareg, Bedouin and Dayak in some of the remotest regions on Earth. He is the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Geographical Society. ABOUT THE EVENT Doors open 7pm. Talk starts 7.30pm. A talk plus Q and A by Tristan Gooley, followed by book-signing. Copies of all Tristan’s books will be on sale. Tickets: £17 book & ticket, includes a hardback copy of How to Read a Tree / £7 Ticket only (option to buy book on the night, ticket gives £7 off book RRP of £20)
with support from local poets’ open-mic, MC’ed by Simon Zec.
Join us for an evening of verse with acclaimed poet Henry Normal reading from his new collection, The Fire Hills.
The poems in Fire Hills reflect the landscapes Henry explored upon moving to Fairlight, in East Sussex, as he wandered the Downs, armed only with a pen and unwarranted optimism. Henry will perform a 30-40 minute reading plus Q and A. Our MC for the evening will be local poet Simon Zec, who’ll also be the ‘selector’ for 30 minutes of so of readings from local poets – please submit poems to Simon if you wish to be included in the open mic. The venue is the beautiful Steyning parish church of St Andrew & St Cuthman. There will be a pay bar serving local beers, cheap plonk and soft drinks.
DOORS OPEN 7pm. Event starts 7.30pm.
About Henry Normal Henry is originally from Nottingham, where he first started writing, performing and touring – even opening for bands including Pulp. (He also became Pulp’s tour bus driver!) He was spotted by Channel 4 and moved into television, co-writing both the award-winning Mrs Merton show and the first series of The Royle Family. In 1990 he set up a production company, producing and script-editing many well-loved films & TV series, including the Oscar nominated film Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf and Alan Partridge. In 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to Television. He retired in April 2016, and since then has written and performed several shows combining comedy, poetry, and stories about family life for BBC Radio 4. Henry now lives near Hastings with his wife, the screenwriter Angela Pell, and their son Johnny.
To celebrate their stunning new picture book The Bowerbird, come and meet its author, Julia Donaldson, AND illustrator Catherine Rayner, at the Steyning Bookshop for a special book-signing on Saturday 1st April from 2pm. How it Works The book-signing will be split into 40 minute time-slots to reduce queue times, with 20 family groups in each time slot. Each ‘ticket’ entitles entry for the purchaser AND THEIR FAMILY GROUP (up to 5 persons, please specify how many adults / children) and includes 1 copy of The Bowerbird. If you want to purchase multiple copies – don’t buy multiple tickets please! You’ll have plenty of chance to buy more books on the day of the signing, and Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! We will provide fun activities and free biscuits / juice for children while you wait to meet Julia.
The first 100 pre-orders for The Bowerbird (whether booked via signing tickets or pre-ordered on our website) will receive a free, limited-edition print by Catherine Rayner. We are sorry, but Julia and Catherine will not sign books purchased elsewhere or brought from home. About the Book The Bowerbird sees Julia Donaldson joins forces with illustrator Catherine Rayner for another exotic avian tale, following their beautiful, best-selling book The Go-Away Bird in 2019. Little Bert, the Bowerbird, is looking for love. Bert has painstakingly constructed the MOST perfect Bower, complete with a pretty purple flower… But Nanette, the lady of his dreams, is FAR from impressed. So Bert flies off finding presents from far and wide… Will it EVER be enough to win Nanette’s heart? Julia Donaldson’s evident delight in the natural world shines through and the illustrations are stunning. A real treat of a picture book for under 6’s.
Click below to buy tickets on our Ticketsource page, alternatively you can reserve your space by phone on 01903 812062.
Join writer, vinyl collector and music buff Jonathan Scott as he takes us on a journey to the very beginnings of recorded sound, to celebrate the release of his new book Into the Groove: The Story of Sound from Tinfoil to Vinyl.. We are really excited about this fascinating music/science blend event, which will hopefully answer that eternal question “Just HOW can discs of bumpy plastic capture sound?” Into the Groove follows the grooves from the first capture of airborne sounds, to steampunk synthesisers, from Thomas Edison’s eureka, to first-wave turntablists, from tin-foil to gold, from cylinder to disc, from swinging shellac to victorious vinyl…
Jonathan’s talk will take us on a whistle-stop tour of his fascinating findings, including audio of the earliest sounds – from the first live performance to the first F-bomb! This is vinyl’s origin story, a format repeatedly written off, threatened by radio, tape, compact disc and download, only to endure and come back stronger. A story which starts in 1877 with grooves of tin foil in a workshop in New Jersey, and ends a century later as the format goes interstellar.
An illustrated talk with slides & audio. Complimentary wine / soft drinks will be served. Doors open 7pm, event starts 7.30pm We regret that the venue is not wheel-chair accessible.
Join the fabulous Sophy Henn for an afternoon of DEADLY fun, as we peek inside an alligator’s jaws, investigate why a lion’s tongue is so dangerous, and learn about the world’s ONLY poisonous primate! *With animal draw-along at the end! This fun, interactive event is based on Sophy’s brand new bookLIFESIZE DEADLY ANIMALS,a fact-filled picture book that’s FULL of the world’s DEADLIEST creatures! Ticket gives £4 off one of Sophy Henn’s LIFESIZE books. AGE GUIDE: for children aged 5-9. FAQS: This event will take place in the bookshop back kitchen, so space in limited, therefore we are only issuing 20 tickets. Accompanying adults do not need to purchase a ticket, but as space is very tight, please keep number of adults / baby siblings to a minimum! Parents of children over 7yrs are welcome to drop n go. The event will last 1 hour.
We are delighted to welcome veteran broadcaster Edward Stourton back to Steyning, for an enlightening evening in conversation with guest interviewer Richard Burge, discussing Ed’s new memoir Confessions.
Edward Stourton has worked in broadcasting for over forty years, and regularly presents BBC Radio Four programmes such as The World at One, The World This Weekend, Sunday and Analysis. He has been a foreign correspondent for Channel Four, ITN and the BBC, and for ten years he was one of the main presenters of the Today programme.
Confessions is a fascinating read, describing the “awokening”, as Stourton puts it, of someone born to privilege who has begun to question the assumptions of his class. Ed was born to wealthy, upper-class expat parents, in colonial Nigeria. He was sent back to Britain to be educated first at Ampleforth, and then at Cambridge University. As a young journalist he reported first from party conferences and picket lines and then from war zones, witnessing international headline-making events, from Haiti to Hong Kong, before returning home to present the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
During this time, the Empire has given way to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, men-only clubs have been replaced by Me Too, and instead of a choice selection of voices on a handful of radio and television channels, we have millions of voices on YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok. The world has changed, and so has Ed.
We know that guest interviewer Richard Burge (ex Head of Wilton Park, now CE of London Chamber of Commerce) will do a marvellous job of drawing out the most thrilling anecdotes from Ed’s remarkable life.
Wine & soft drinks will be served. The historic Brotherhood Hall venue is accessed by a staircase, we regret there is no disabled access.
Join us for a convivial, cosy evening at the Bookshop, celebrating the launch of local historian Chris Hare’s new book Hilaire Belloc – The Politics of Living, on Thursday 8th December at 7.30pm. Wine & nibbles will be served, and Chris will give a talk about his insights into the life and work of the controversial figure.
Hilaire Belloc was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century, who grew up in Slindon in West Sussex, and is buried in the Catholic church at West Grinstead. He is famous for his poetry and song celebrating the Sussex countryside, but was also an orator, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. Chris Hare – a lifelong Belloc reader – takes a fresh look at Belloc’s career and his attitudes towards religion, politics, war, nature, and mortality, as well as examining claims made alleging Belloc to be anti-Semitic.
Chris Hare runs his own heritage consultancy, History People, and has written extensively on the history of Sussex, its folk music, and Worthing, his home town, in particular. Chris has an MA in Life History from the University of Sussex.
Join us for an evening with GREG MOSSE as he discusses his debut novel The Coming Darkness – in conversation with his wife, best-selling novelist KATE MOSSE. The Coming Darkness is a gripping eco-thriller, set in an eerily prescient, not-too-distant future, which is already being hailed as a successor to Terry Hayes’ I Am Pilgrim. About the Evening We are thrilled that Kate Mosse, best-selling author of Labyrinth, Citadel, City of Tears and many more, will be interviewing Greg. There will also be an audience Q & A and both Greg and Kate will sign books at the end. Tickets are £16.00 (admits one, includes signed hardback copy of The Coming Darkness) or £7 (admits one, no book – but ticket can be redeemed against a purchase of The Coming Darkness on the night). Copies of Kate Mosse’s recent books will also be on sale. This will be a ‘book-group’ style event where members of the public are warmly invited to join our 3 book groups, who will have read the book, but we promise – no spoilers! About Greg Mosse Greg Mosse is a creative writing tutor, playwright, and the founder and leader of the Criterion New Writing script development programme at the Criterion Theatre, London. Since 2015, he has written and produced 25 plays and musicals, often in collaboration. He created the Southbank Centre Creative Writing School – an open access program of evening classes, delivering MA level workshops, and also wrote and validated the MA Creative Writing that he taught for four years for the University of Sussex at West Dean College. The Coming Darkness is his first published novel. About The Coming Darkness Paris, 2037. Global warming and pandemics have torn through the fabric of society. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service has lost faith in his job – hunting eco-terrorists, and is ready to give up. But he is drawn back in by an ominous sequence of events: a theft from a Norwegian genetics lab; a string of gory child murders; his mother’s illness; a chaotic coup in a breakaway North African republic… He rapidly finds himself in a heart-thumping race against chaos and destruction, the one man with the ability to see through to the deranged intelligence that is plunging the world headlong into ..the coming darkness.
Join us on Sunday 20th November, from 2pm, for a very special book-signing with Julia Donaldson as she celebrates TWO lovely new picture books; the stunning Colours, Colours Everywhere, beautifully illustrated by Sharon King-Chai, and the long awaited return of everyone’s favourite little ladybird in What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas, charmingly illustrated by Lydia Monks.
How it Works The book-signing will be split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times. Each single ‘ticket’ admits ONE FAMILY GROUP of up to 5 persons (please specify how many adults / children). A £12.99 ticket includes a copy of What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas, a £14.99 ticket includes a copy of Colours, Colours Everywhere, and a £27.98 ticket includes both books. You can buy additional copies at the bookshop on the day. If you want to purchase multiple copies – don’t buy multiple tickets please! You’ll have plenty of chance to buy more books on the day of the signing, and Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! We will provide fun activities and free biscuits / juice for children while you wait to meet Julia. We are sorry, but Julia will not sign books purchased elsewhere or brought from home.
About the Books Colours, Colours Everywhere is Julia’s third book with the talented illustrator Sharon King-Chai, following the stunning Animalphabet and Counting Creatures. In lyrical rhyme, follow the adventures of a little girl and her tree frog friend as they discover a world of colours, sumptuously illustrated with fold-out pages and peep-through cut-outs. What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas is the fifth book in Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks’ best-selling What the Ladybird Heard series, and sees the plucky little ladybird once again foiling the dastardly plans of those baddies, Hefty Hugh and Lofty Len as they plot to steal the children’s Christmas presents from their stockings! A lively rhyming story with vibrant illustrations.
To celebrate release of the book The Repair Shop: Life in the Barn, Kirsten Ramsay,ceramics expert from the smash hit BBC TV show will be joining us for a very special event. Hear how Kirsten developed her craft and her most memorable restorations to date, and dive behind the scenes of the show to reveal the inside stories from guests and presenters. Also – you may bring interesting / unusual ceramic items for Kirsten to examine – but not repair! Evening format: Interview ‘in conversation’ with Kirsten Ramsay, Audience Q and A, book-signing. Complimentary tea, cake and soft drinks will be served.
